With the software framework 'ROS1' for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, Microsoft meets the needs of users for a powerful and functional system for the development and safe operation of increasingly complex robots in an increasingly networked infrastructure. ROS1 offers developers interfaces for the integration of robots with IT and operational technology infrastructures - without having to do without existing and familiar ROS components. Customers who already run their business applications on Windows 10 now have the ability to run their robotics applications on the same system. This makes it easier to integrate robots into enterprise IT.

ROS1 makes it easy and secure to integrate and orchestrate different nodes - such as cameras, drive systems, environmental perception sensors, control technologies or interfaces for interacting with human users. ROS1 nodes for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise also enable integration with Microsoft Azure: developers can connect robots to Azure IoT Hub for centralized management and control, add artificial intelligence to Azure Machine Learning or Azure Cognitive Services, and rely on proven development tools such as Visual Studio.

More computing power

ROS1 for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise takes advantage of the significantly increased performance of modern hardware, but can also run on Windows 10 IoT Core and thus on computers with smaller processors. The performance is needed, among other things, for computer vision, i.e. the ability of computers to recognize the content of images and videos. This is a very computation-intensive task that requires powerful hardware. ROS1 with Windows Machine Learning can do this and at the same time provides standardized interfaces for integrating the GPU, so that image recognition can run with almost any graphics card.

The 'TurtleBot3' driving robot with camera and laser scanner, which relies on ROS1, can be seen at the trade fair. The robot can recognize people and objects and turn toward them. Such technologies can be used in logistics as well as guides in shops, museums or public institutions.